


The Westerosi Scrapbook

by Mal3



Series: The Westerosi [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Star Trek (Sort Of)
Genre: #eliadeservesbetter, Gen, Odds 'n Sods, Omake, Roleplay, Worldbuilding, shitposting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-03-19 05:21:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 18,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13697712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mal3/pseuds/Mal3
Summary: Miscellaneous fun stuff from the world ofThe Westerosioriginating from the various fan forums from which it sprang lo those many years ago. Omakes, crossovers, worldbuilding notes and other odds and ends from the creation ofThe Westerosiand its sequels. Archived here for posterity.





	1. An Introduction and Explanation

Hello to all my wonderful readers out there on AO3!

So, you're probably wondering what this is all about. Well, long story short there's a lot of stuff from  _The Westerosi, Westerosi II: Subprime Directives_ and the inevitable third story (when it happens) that dedicated AO3 users don't get to see. My works are initially published at SpaceBattles.com and SufficientVelocity.com, where I have a reasonably active reader base that keeps the threads more-or-less afloat while I work[1]. And I like to talk about my work, the worlds that I end up building and the people who inhabit them, and I get  _really_ bored at my day job, which leads me to the point where I start dumping stuff in the threads to spark discussion. Sometimes it's omakes, or scenes that got cut for one reason or another, or "if Jade had landed in this ASoIaF fic instead of canon" snippets or other aborted crossovers. There's a lot of worldbuilding that went into the creation of Jade Hasegawa, more than you might suspect, and a lot of the forum material involves the world Jade came from when she crash-landed in Westeros. But most of it, and the stuff I really treasure the most, are the bits where I let Jade out to play with the readers a little bit. This generally amounted to bending the fourth wall back a little and Jade talking to people about her background, or just rambling on about stuff. Or, like SpaceBattles user  **iyaerP** put it:

> _From the IC Jade responses to thread questions, I'm getting an odd vibe of we the thread members are random Federation civvies that have heard about the plight of Captain Hasegawa through the Starfleet News Service or whatever and we're using the rescue fleet as a relay to text her odd and inane questions and she's responding to them out of a combination of boredom and homesickness._

(Sadly, nobody's yet taken me up on the offer of writing "fan mail" for  _Subprime Directives_ just yet. Offer's still open, if anybody's interested)

That, in a nutshell, is what this is: an archive of omakes, worldbuilding, stuff-that-didn't-happen and general shitposting that I felt was worthy of archiving here for the benefit of people who don't read the story on SpaceBattles or Sufficient Velocity, or only read it in one of those, or picked up on the story via the link in the TVTropes ASoIaF Fic Recommendations List. (I made the rec list! How'd that happen?! Now all I need is an actual page...) Think of it as a way to read the threads without actually having to, you know,  _read the threads._

xoxo,  
The Fun Tyrant

 

 

 

[1] Though to be perfectly honest I'd probably have five to ten times more readers if'n I was chronicling the adventures of Captain Taylor Hebert, but nooo I had to be  _different_ and create my  _own character_. Ah well, can't win 'em all. 


	2. Cut Scene / Omake: Jade vs. Wildfire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was cut from the King's Landing portions of _The Westerosi_ in large part because I had no really good place to put it, but I wanted to remark on the nature of everybody's favorite green splody goop at _some_ point during the story. This is divided into two sections; the first is actual canon (referenced in [Chapter 29](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7188968/chapters/24054276) of _The Westerosi_ , while the second is a non-canonical funny I put together as a response to the quoted poster.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on June 30, 2016 (part one) and July 3, 2016 (part two).

Log Entry: Surface Day <<ERROR>>

In my time on this rock I've been amazed, amused, impressed and occasionally disgusted by the things I've seen. Today however marks the first time that Westeros has managed to  _freak me the fuck out_.

I was in King's Landing on an archive trawl before heading north to prod at the Wall a little more when a man in robe similar but entirely unlike a maester's robe intercepted me and offered me an invitation to the Alchemist's Guild. Apparently word had reached them of a maegi in the capital with strange and powerful magics and they were interested in swapping notes, I guess. Sizing me up to see if I was a threat to whatever power base they had, which didn't seem like a whole lot but whatever. I'd only come across dribs and drabs of information about alchemy in previous attempts--the maesters seemed to have the physical sciences all sewn up--so I figured why not? 

So anyway, I end up going there and having a nice long walk-and-talk with one of the senior alchemists. We were pretty much talking past one another, I think; most of his explanations I'll need to unpack and I know  _my_  explanations went way the hell over his head. In any case, we wandered through the guildhall watching apprentice alchemists doing various tasks until we came across a chamber containing what he called "the substance," apparently the thing the guild's greatest creation. Again, curious, so I asked if I could take a look and sent Yakko over to scan the pot.

Yakko piped the data over to my VR overlay and... Rangers get trained to keep their cool under all sorts of situations. I am in fact very proud that I looked at the scan results and didn't immediately scream, piss myself and run back to the ship in order to get to minimum safe distance. Like, say, Highgarden. Or maybe Winterfell. Possibly Yi Ti because  _Jesus_.

What the alchemists call  _the substance_ \--I later learned that everybody else calls it by the much more fitting name  _wildfire_ \--is quite possibly the most absurdly dangerous chemical mixture ever produced. It's a witch's brew two main components and a stabilizer of some sort. The first main component is a chlorine trifluoride compound, something that isn't just toxic, it'll burn pretty much everything: wood, skin, metal,  _water..._  The second compound wasn't something I'd ever seen produced, but it was this hellish nitrogen azide that previously only existed in the nightmares of industrial chemists, something that would literally explode with more force than conventional explosives with barely any provocation. So you mix together a material that's omnicombustible with a trigger that explodes if you look at it wrong and hey presto!

The stabilizer is the key, I think. I don't recognize the exact chemical but it's psi-active, whatever it is. From the way the head alchemist described wildfire manufacture it sounds like they start using lots of stabilizer from the first step onward, which probably explains why a chemical that ought to have 99.9999% fatality rates in making/storing "only" has a cost of one apprentice in every 10. As it stands wildfire goes from being something that can't theoretically  _exist_  to something roughly as dangerous as early experiments in nitroglycerin. Which is still horribly unstable but not "explode so hard it takes out your ancestors" unstable.

And these people managed to discover it  _without melting themselves_  in a High Postclassical environment! How is this I don't even.

Part of me wants to grab a sample for posterity, but the sane parts of me don't want so much as a  _droplet_  of this crap aboard  _my ship!_ I'm honestly amazed that wildfire is allowed inside the city, to be honest. I'd have thought shit like this would've been banished to remote towers in the literal middle of nowhere, just to keep the potential disaster to a minimum.

Huh. Might bring that up with the King next time our paths cross.

* * *

**Brian Boru said:** **[↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=22849853#post-22849853) **

> _Wonder what her response would be if she learned just how much of the shit is stockpiled UNDER King's Landing?_

 

 _SCENE: King's Landing, a couple months into the Handship of Eddard Stark. We find our heroine, JADE HASEGAWA, in the witch's quarters in the Red Keep, staring at a map of the city projected by her faithful drone WAKKO._  
  
**Jade:**     
  
_Enter NED STARK, accompanied by several loyal GUARDS._  
  
**Ned:**  My lady? We heard your howling from the Tower of the Hand, what is the matter?  
**Guard 1:** *sotto voce* (All the way from the Dragonpit, more like. Gods, what a noise.)  
**Guard 2:**  *ditto* (Quiet, y'halfwit!)  
**Jade:**  ** Oh... hi Ned. I was... I was making a map of the city when the scanners noticed something.  
  
_JADE gestures at the map. It's a beautifully-rendered map of King's Landing, perfect in every detail. But there's a series of green X marks on top of large portions of the city. NED looks at it, puzzled._  
  
**Ned:**  These marks... what are they?  
**Jade:**  ** Those? Oh, those are wildfire.  
**Guards 1 & 2:** *tiny strangled squeaking noises*  
**Ned:**  *only slightly better at holding his composure*  _Wildfire?!_  
**Jade:**  ** Could you, um, maybe go get the king for me, please? And maybe a stiff drink? Or like, ten stiff drinks? I... kind of need the alcohol so I don't start screaming and never stop.  
**Ned:**  ** Aye. I'll, I'll do that right away my lady. Please wait here.  
**Jade:**  ** That's no problem, I'm kinda rooted to the spot in sheer terror.  
  
_Exeunt NED and the GUARDS, as if pursued by a bear._  
  
~END SCENE~


	3. 4th Wall Shenanigans: Jade and the Starklings Watch Star Trek Beyond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw Star Trek Beyond when it came out, and I really _really_ liked Star Trek Beyond. Of all the JJverse Trek movies, this one finally came up to the level of being Actually Good Star Trek, as opposed to Mostly Okay Star Trek. So, right about after I saw the move for the second time (I think) I ended up posting this bit of nonsense as a way to help show the differences between canonical Trek and Jade's off-brand version of it.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on July 25, 2016.

_SCENE: The Carefree Victory's bridge, reconfigured for media use. Our heroine is settling in for an evening at the movies..._  
  
**Jade:**  Okay, got some beer, got some popcorn, got the viewscreen rigged for theater mode, let's watch a movie.  
**  
Sansa:**  Lady Jade?  
**  
Jade:**  Wait what.  
**  
Jon:**  We, er, heard a commotion from outside and were just checking on you--  
**  
Jade:**  What? No!  _My_  fourth wall,  _mine!_  Shoo!  _Shoo!  
_  
**Arya:**  Hey, is this one of those magic mummer's play things you were talking about the other day? Can we watch?  
  
**Sansa:**  *uses Puppy Dog Eyes +5* Please, my lady? We'll be quiet...  
  
**Jade:**  *critical hit!* Er...  
  
**Robb:**  Did somebody say something about a play?  
  
**Jade:**  *facepalm* Argh.  _Fine_. Come on if you're coming.   
  
_*the Starklings take their seats*_  
  
**Jon:**  So what is this about?  
  
**Jade:**   _Star Trek Beyond._  It's... well, you know how you're curious about where I come from? It's not  _quite_  like home, but it's pretty close I think. Everybody ready? Then we've got  _movie sign!_  
  
*Jade hits Play*

 

_*Diplomacy has failed! Just another day in the Fleet.*_  
  
**Sansa:**  Those grumkins are very small... and angry.   
  
**Robb:**  Is that a regular thing for your people?  
  
**Jade:**  Getting mobbed by tiny alien politicians? Sort of.  
  
**Robb:** Sort of?  
  
**Jade:**  Depends on the assignment. Personally it's never happened to me, but I know a guy.  
  
_*Ohai Shirtless Kirk[tm]!*  
_  
**Sansa:**  *tries not to stare*  
  
**Jade:**  *doesn't bother* Not bad...  
  
_*Welcome to Starbase Yorktown!*  
  
*the Starklings are very impressed*  
_  
**Jon:**   _Gods._  That's...   
  
**Robb:** That's...  
  
**Arya:**  That's  _amazing!  
_  
**Sansa:**  It's the most beautiful castle I've ever seen!  
  
**Jade:**  Not really a castle, more like... oh, King's Landing but ten times bigger. Hey... I think I can see my old apartment from here.  
  
**Robb:**  You lived there?  
  
**Jade:**  In between missions, yeah. I haven't been back in, oh, three or four years though.   
_  
*The Enterprise goes into the nebula, and promptly gets rekd*  
_  
**Jade:**  *winces* Ow. Damn. Hate to see a ship like that sink. And  _that_ , children, is the sort of thing that Fleet has to deal with on a regular basis.  
  
**Jon:**  What, giant swarms of metal demon bees that chew through ships like they were made of butter?  _That's_  what your people have to deal with?  
  
**Robb:**  No wonder you're so lackadaisical about court etiquette. We don't actually threaten you at all, do we my lady?  
  
**Jade:**  Kind of? I mean, I'm trying to make a good-faith effort about all that, but when you've faced down stuff like that in the past it takes a good deal more than King Grabass and Queen Snitty to faze me, yeah.  
  
_*Enter Jaylah, tiger-stripe badass of the year!*  
_  
**Arya:**  *starry eyes* Ooooooh...  
  
**Jon:**  *deeply amused* I think somebody has a new role model...  
  
**Sansa:**  *facepalm* Gods, Septa Mordane is going to kill all of us for this.  
  
**Jade:**  Hey now, at least she can build stuff  _and_  fight. That makes her a better role model.  
  
_*The USS Franklin appears*  
_  
**Jade:**  Hey! I know that ship!  
  
**Robb:** You do?  
  
**Jade:**  Well, that class of ship anyway. I did my cadet tour on one, the  _Voltaire_. She was a good ship, really sturdy. Always thought I'd end up skipper on one if I'd stayed in the main Fleet instead of the Rangers.  
  
_*Krall demonstrates his longevity technique*  
_  
**Robb:** Um, well, that's... disgusting and horrible.  
  
**Jon:**  I thought Old Nan's tales were bad...  
  
_*"You gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry." / "You gave your girlfriend a tracking device."*  
_  
**Jade:** See, this is why I don't date Vulcans often. There's a very fine line between thoughtful and utterly clueless and so many Vulcans have  _so much_  trouble with that line.  
  
_*Prison break!*  
_  
**Jade:**  Aww yeah, now that's how you do it  _Starfleet!_  My boys and girls, woo!  
  
_*We need a distraction! / Classical music with the shouting and the beats*  
_  
**Sansa:**  *wincing* I don't think I like this music.  
  
**Arya:**  *for once in agreement with her sister* Aye, it's too loud.  
  
**Robb:**  *bobbing along to the beat* Oh, I don't know. A man could get to like this quickly enough.  
  
**Arya:**  *huffs*  _Boys.  
  
*Dramatic last-minute revelation time! Krall is....*  
_  
**Robb:**  So wait, the lizard man  _was_  human, but now he's not? How does that make sense?  
  
**Jade:**  Will you hit me if I say magic?  
  
**Robb:**  Maybe?  
  
**Jade:**  Then it was just bad luck. That's something Rangers have to worry about too, getting lost in space and going a little... crazy.  
  
**Sansa:**  Uh, Lady Jade, should we worry about that happening to you?  
  
**Jade:**  What? Oh, no no, of course not! I was already crazy when I got here!  
  
**Jon:**  That's not anywhere near as reassuring as you probably hoped it would be.  
  
_*Final confrontation! "I'd rather die saving live than taking them."*  
_  
**Robb:**  Father would approve of Captain Kirk, I think. He seems to be a good man.  
  
**Jade:**  There's better men out there... but yeah, I think so too.  
  
_*End credits!*  
_  
**Arya:**  *sits bolt upright* What was that?!  
  
**Sansa:**  What was what?  
  
**Arya:**  There was a hand!  
  
**Jon:**  A what?  
  
**Arya:**  A  _hand!_  There was a giant, green glowing hand there, for just a moment!  
  
**Jon:** Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?

  
~30~


	4. Q&A: Storytime with Captain Jade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one capped off an argument about self-inserts and how they might or might not get along terribly well with Jade, depending on circumstances (what's referenced in the comment). This is a longer version of my IC responses to stuff, and it provides a little bit more data on Jade's backstory.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on July 28, 2016.

Matrix Dragon said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=23742841#post-23742841)

> Getting a bit bored with 'My fanfic could beat up your fanfic'. Let's move on. Does Jade have any fun stories she'd like to share with the class? Pirates, disaster relief, adventures with the fleet, finding a negative space wedgie that results in a run in with her counterpart from the universe where everyone's genders are swapped?

**Jade:**  That last one's always kind of interesting when it happens, especially when you go out for a drink and some halfwit decides to bust out the old "oh, you swapped genders couldn't tell the difference lol" and then you get to explain to the starbase commandant exactly  _why_  security picked up you and your alternate trying to feed your asshole ex-roomie down the waste disposal chute.   
  
That said... hm. Fleet put the boots to the old Orion cartels before I was born, and most of the piracy that's left tends to cluster around the trade routes through Delve. That's mostly Fleet or redshirt business, to be honest, though when the Admiralty finally decides the pirate goons are more trouble than they're worth I might get called up to run scout pickets for the dreadnoughts. Oh, man, I do love me a dready. They're not capital-S Starships like the  _Enterprise_  or the  _Previn Lal_ , but they're sweet rides for all that they're dedicated warships. Vulcan-designed, of course, which is funny because you'd think that a race of avowed pacifists wouldn't be all that good at building warships but I guess they stopped fighting because they were just too  _good_  at it, y'know? I can respect that. But anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, dreadnoughts: they're really pretty ships for all they're built as dedicated murder-machines. And I really respect how they're always there when you need one, too.   
  
But I do have one pirate story, of sorts. So this was, oh, five-six years ago,  _Victory_  and I were out on the fringes near the Quad. The Quad is this area of space defined by the borders of a couple different nations, the big ones being us and the Thlingan Imperium, with a couple neutrals and pre-spaceflight civs sort of stuck in the middle. There'd been a few nasty border incidents over the years, but honestly nobody wanted to fight a war to the knife for the freaking Quad when there was plenty of decent real estate on everybody's unoccupied borders. So we keep ships there, the Thlingans keeps ships there, etc. and things kind of fall into a routine where everybody spends the day nervously eyeing each other through the gunsights and the night drinking together & bemoaning the idiocy of their COs. So anyway, I'm in the Quad on a mission: technically "scientific and cultural research expeditions" are allowed by treaty inside the Quad, but everybody and their gender-swapped-alternate-universe-sibling knows that nearly 100% of these are spy runs. And, well, that was what I was up to. At least technically. The  _real_  spyguys were off being shady somewhere else, I was essentially bait for anybody who was looking.  
  
I'm in the Quad, doing a touch-and-go run on a handful of the pre-spaceflights nearest the Federal border. Pretty much hop in, collect a data download from the probes we left in the system, hop back out and maybe watch a highlight reel on the way to the next waypoint. Pretty boring until I get to the Rhelomav system. I'm not expecting anything; Rhelomav's at best a late iron-age civ, not even quite as advanced as Westeros, just grab the data and warp on really. Which is why I'm totally shocked when I get intercepted by an honest-to-god  _frigate_  and a pair of corvettes. My first thought is "Thlingans!" but that's not right, they're smarter than that. Trying to conquer a pre-spaceflight civ in the Quad is a pretext for war and the Emperor doesn't want that any more than the Plurality, and there're better systems to set up listening posts anyway. It turned out--and I didn't find this out until  _way_  later, well after all the dust had settled--that I had stumbled across a nest of Optimals.  
  
Optimals are... huh. Not sure how to describe them to an early twenty-first century audience. They're  _not good news_ , let's leave it at that, and the Fleet makes it a goal to grind them into muck at every available opportunity. Where this particular gang of overengineered idiots came from I don't know and if anybody found out they never told me, but they were apparently in the process of setting up Rhelomav as a base for operations in Federal space. Their intel was lousy so they had no clue I was going to show up. That worked in my favor, honestly, because while I love my  _Victory_  with all my heart, there's no way she can stand up against three warships that know she's coming. So I dodge blaster fire and come a whisker away from losing the port nacelle to a torpedo before I can get the hell out of there and all the while I'm on the ansible screaming "OPTIMALS!" back to Starbase Roanpur. Something like six subjective days--so, four or five minutes--later I manage to get away long enough to reengage warp. Of course the bastards have their blood up, so they follow me.  
  
 _Victory_  is fast, but these fucks were pissed, and they had my scent. I probably could've lost them if I wanted to but at this point I just want them to go. the fuck.  _away._ Roanpur's on comms with me, and they tell me to kite the Optimals to a particular system just on our side of the Quad. This seemed foolish and nearly suicidal, so naturally I did it. I drop out of subspace riding hell for leather and there is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen: three  _D'Kyr_  class dreadies all rigged for combat operations. The Optimals dropped out of subspace maybe ninety seconds behind me and they had no clue what was coming and no chance in hell of getting away. The redshirts feasted well that day, let me tell you.


	5. Rejected Scene: Sansa's New Hobby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular scene was never going to make it all the way to a finished piece, not least because it relies heavily on existing canon up to (at least) just before the Purple Wedding, and that was _never_ going to fly for this series. However, as my first initial stab at writing Olenna Tyrell convincingly I think it works out okay. 
> 
> Originally posted to Sufficient Velocity on June 12, 2016.

Gremlin Jack said: [↑](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/goto/post?id=6238159#post-6238159)

> Sansa works better, she was always the more intellectual of the Stark daughters (if only her intellect hadn't been crippled by gender roles...) At any rate, I really enjoy this story. Your character Hasegawa is one of the most brilliant creations I've read.

Yeah, I'd probably rate Sansa as the brightest of the Stark kids in general--none of them are actually  _stupid_  or anything, but Sansa's pretty smart if constrained by Westerosi gender roles. Plus in canon she's had an education from four of the top-tier political minds in Westeros. Sansa Stark is not a person to be overlooked, which makes the fact that she  _is_  overlooked by her enemies and half the damn fandom all the more entertaining.  
  
Hm. A chunk of dialogue that will likely not be canonized:  
  
 _Scene: King's Landing, sometime in the middle of the War of the Five Kings. We find Sansa Stark, professional hostage and sometime princess, going over piles and piles of old parchment in a quiet room. Enter Olenna Tyrell._  
  
 **Olenna:**  Moldy old parchment, ink and dust. Such wonderful smells for a lady, no wonder the king married you off to his Master of Coin, you make a perfect pair of bookkeepers.  
 **Sansa:**  Hm? Oh, good day Lady Olenna, I didn't hear you come in, I thought I heard a carp in the distance. How may I help you?  
 **Olenna:**  My granddaughter requests your presence. And I admit I was curious about you, locked away in tiny rooms with nothing but books. What is it about all this nonsense you find so fascinating?  
 **Sansa:**  Oh but this  _is_  quite fascinating, Lady Olenna. This is a book on legends of the First Men in the south the grandmaester loaned me, and these are copies of the prophecies that Aegon the Unlikely studied before Summerhall. I'm trying to see if there's any connections to old northern tales.  
 **Olenna:**  Prophecy? Stuff and nonsense, girl. You should put away all these books, they'll make you a dried-up old woman like me, well before your time.  
 **Sansa:**  Oh, I don't know, a friend once told me that everybody should have at least one weird hobby, they keep us interesting.  
 **Olenna:**  Oh? And did your "friend" have any more equally scintillating advice?  
 **Sansa:**  ...more than I listened to, my lady.


	6. Q&A: The Pizza Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man, I don't even know...
> 
> This one started with a fairly innocuous question which kinda got massively out of hand in rapid fashion. I'm honestly sticking this one in the scrapbook because it's just too weird and funny to leave out. This particular conversation features SpaceBattles user **StannisBaratheon** , who does a pretty amazing job of RPing Stannis as a posting gimmick in general. 
> 
> Posted on SpaceBattles between June 14 and June 15, 2017.

namar13766 said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=36054103#post-36054103)

> Jade, out of curiosity, let's say you gave Planetos the recipe for pizza. How big a prime directive violation would that be?

**Jade:**  Weird question but okay... Most Planetosi societies that I've got any direct information on have flatbread, they have various toppings and Westeros at least has cheese so putting them all together doesn't really qualify as a violation. At worst it's an odd little social faux-pas since the reaction would be "why are you eating the [trencher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trencher_\(tableware\)) along with the food?" which, y'know, kind of weird unless you're dirt-poor and/or starving. Pizza is really,  _really_  low tech when you get down to it--it's just bread with stuff on it, and Planetos has a very robust baking culture so far as I can tell. Haven't found a Planetosi pizza yet, but I haven't been all the way south, west or east yet. I wouldn't be totally shocked to find something like a pizza around  _somewhere._  Man, a pizza sounds good though. There was a guy on Starbase Canaveral who set up a proper Martian pizza joint a couple months before I left, redstone oven and everything. It was great, I could get a proper potato-chile pizza with goat sausage almost exactly like the ones I survived on whenever I was home from the Academy.  
  
...and now I'm homesick. So, thanks for that.

* * *

 

XelianEmperor said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=36085138#post-36085138)

> I thought the best pizzas are found in New York Arcology?

**Jade:**  Only North Americans and tourists think that. Hell, not even all North Americans, the Chicago-New York debate won't die no matter how hard Mars owns both their asses.

* * *

 

StannisBaratheon said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=36090847#post-36090847)

> No tomatoes in Westeros, so that poses a problem to making a proper pizza. If Robert dies and I sit the Iron Throne, I shall send the Lady Jade on a quest to scour the world for tomatoes, Others be damned.

**Jade:**  Dude, seriously. Shit like this is the reason only Davos actually trusts you to be a decent king.

* * *

 

StannisBaratheon said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=36117910#post-36117910)

> You don't understand. You grew up in a society with pizza, you take it for granted. My entire Kingdom has never tasted it. By dedicating such efforts to securing a supply of pizza for my people, I only do my duty to protect them from suffering. I bet the Others will calm down too if we give them some decent pizza.
> 
> Also, official ruling from the King: deep dish pizza is not pizza, and is hereby banned for pizza heresy. Pineapple does not belong on a pizza but may be served as a side dish.

**Jade:**  I... but... guh...  _how do you even know what pizza tastes like!?_  

* * *

 

StannisBaratheon said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=36119005#post-36119005)

> It came to me in a dream. When I awoke, consulted Maester Cressen, and realized that there was no such food in Westeros, I swore that I would dedicate my life towards finding a tomato plant and delivering this holiest of foods to my people. I allied with the R'hllorites for the sole purpose of using their expertise in matters of flame to build a perfect brick oven.
> 
> ...knowing my luck, there's probably only a single grove of tomato plants deep within the Green Hell of Sothoryos, guarded by the deadliest creatures on that already deadly continent.

**Jade:**  ... Right, screw this I'm gonna go talk with the Others now. Clearly they are the only other sane beings within several dozen light years.


	7. Q&A: Jade's First First Contact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular answer was part of a longer and somewhat heated discussion on the nature of the Prime Directive and the ethics of interference. Go hunt up the thread if you're interested in reading the whole conversation; there's a lot to unpack in there, I think the argument made is valid, but it's mostly me arguing OOC with certain posters and I don't think it's really good scrapbook material. This little anecdote from Jade, though, I particularly liked as a bit of character building and good glimpse of _why_ Jade does what she does in the story overall.
> 
> First posted to SpaceBattles on July 28, 2016.

Random832 said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=23724599#post-23724599)

> Who has standing to establish contact? Whoever has the means? How convenient that if that's anyone at all it's probably the people who already have power.

**Jade:**  The standard rule of thumb is, if you can talk to us you have standing. That ranges from planetary governments all the way to random dudes with a crystal radio set. That one actually happened, incidentally. I was on my cadet cruise on the  _Voltaire_ , this dinky little early-Fleet scout, she was a good ship, ended up in a museum around Andor I think. Anyway, we're on the  _Voltaire_  learning how to be spacers and we cruise past one of the Protectorate worlds, an industrialized world that didn't know we were out there but we were keeping tabs on when we pick up a radio message. Somebody down on the surface had a transmitter and was just broadcasting blindly into the sky. He wasn't a government official or a soldier, he was just... just a guy, you know? I don't know if he thought he was talking to aliens or God or just needed to hear the sound of his own voice, but he was down there, using this primitive-ass radio telescope as a transmitter, telling the universe that shit was going wrong and they could use a hand.  
  
Of course we all hear this and the cadets start arguing. Do we ignore it, do we pass it up the chain, what do we do, yadda yadda. Nobody really had any good idea on what do to, but then we were all dumb kids at that point so of course we didn't. At the end of it all, our CO, Captain Shelev, makes the call. We put in a call to the nearest Fleet base for backup, and then he sends a relay probe to the planet, to make communication easier, you see. We figure out where the transmission came from, and the skipper sends this message: "This is the Federal Worlds ship  _Voltaire,_  we heard your distress signal, how can we help?"  
  
And  _that,_  kids, is how I spent my senior year at the Academy: shadowing a Federal diplomatic team as they brokered a peace between not two but  _five_  separate factions all driving towards a full-on nuclear war, and ended up making a despairing grad student who hijacked his professor's pet project into the most famous man on his planet. We did a lot of good that year. I'll bust on the regular Fleet guys now and then, but honestly? It's shit like that makes me  _damn_ proud to wear the wings alongside them.


	8. Worldbuilding: The Testament of Thetis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually one of the very first pieces of longform worldbuilding I did for the Federal Worlds setting, the original draft of this dates to around 2015ish, around the same time that I shifted Jade and _The Westerosi_ out of its original universe (a story for another time, Dear Reader...) and into the setting you all know and love. The Testament of Thetis has nothing to do with the story to date--I have entertained the notion of using it for one of Jade's post-Westeros adventures, but nothing's set in stone as of this writing. Attached to the worldbuilding narrative are a few followup answers from Jade.
> 
> First posted to SpaceBattles on March 29, 2017.

<::begin SolArchive search::>  
 **Search: Testament of Thetis**  
<::begin SolArchive document::>  
  
The Testament of Thetis is a record of ancient contact between the people of Earth and a planet known as Kobol, currently understood to be a Builder preserve of some kind. The record was discovered in a cave in the Elysium Montes region (known popularly as the Tomb of Thetis) around 95 UEC, during the early colonization phase. The tomb and record were initially believed to be some kind of elaborate hoax on the part of the early explorers, but the find was later authenticated by archaeologists and technical historians.  
  
The tomb was initially airlocked against the Martian atmosphere, but either failed or was deliberately left unsealed after the original occupant died. Inside, explorers discovered an advanced cryogenic capsule containing the body of a human woman estimated to be biologically 40-45 years old at time of death. Radiocarbon dating of the remains indicated the woman had died no less than 4,500 years prior. Also enclosed in the capsule was a series of durable plastic sheets covered in a script resembling Egyptian hieratic writing. These sheets, along with a companion audiovisual record on diamond storage within the capsule’s system memory, make up what is commonly known as the Testament.  
  
The Testament is the story of the Lords of Kobol, the caste who ruled the planet Kobol for an unspecified period of time until it’s destruction in a civil war. More specifically it is the story of Thetis, believed to be the woman in the capsule, her role in the conflict and how she came to escort a group of surviving Kobolian refugees to Earth. Thetis describes the Lords as an upper class of transhumans who hoarded hyper-empowering technology and used it to rule over the majority-baseline Kobolians as gods. Her writing points out the “hubris” of the Lords multiple times, though only in an elliptical fashion leaving scholars to puzzle out full context.  
  
Whatever the full truth of the matter is, the Testament makes it clear that Thetis was at best a dissenter from the final stage of the Lords rule over Kobol. The exact nature of the collapse is unclear: Thetis describes it in poetic fashion as a Titanomachy, hinting that the Lords attempted to create more tractable servants/worshippers after one revolt too many and failed in spectacular fashion. While the Testament is vague on the exact nature of the terminal conflict, it is clear that by the end of it sophont (and possibly all) life on Kobol had effectively ended. At the end of the war only thirteen of the original Lords survived, along with less than a hundred thousand baseline Kobolians. Twelve of the Lords decided to take their surviving followers to a new world, while Thetis took her people on a voyage to Earth. Thetis apparently chose Earth based off of Builder information: this was unclear in earlier translations of the Testament as Solar scholars didn’t encounter Builder artifacts until the mid-late 200s. The rest of the Testament is a poem recording the voyage from Kobol’s wreckage to Earth, the settlement of the refugees in scattered groups along the Anatolian coast, and concludes with Thetis’s retreat to Mars and decision to die there.  
  
The fate of the other twelve Lords of Kobol, as well as their refugee populations, is currently unknown. Attempts to find Kobol have been made since the development of warp drive, but so far all attempts have been unsuccessful. Thetis included very little navigational data in the Testament, concealing any hints as to Kobol’s location within difficult-to-penetrate metaphor. A rough search area was determined using the journals of Bajoran vedek Oli Peejo, who journeyed to Kobol roughly 1,000 years before the Testament was devised, but this search area is still several thousand light-years beyond current Federal borders.  
  
 **Impact**  
Initially believed to be a hoax for very logical reasons, confirmation of the Testament’s legitimacy caused a significant shock to Solar belief systems. The existence of human life around other planets (no matter how long ago that was) turned much of what exobiologists had expected on its head. The Testament inspired a brief reflowering of the old Olympian religion, as well as a resurgence of “ancient astronaut” theorists who proceeded to claim every major event of the early Bronze Age as Kobolian or Kobolian-influenced, no matter how plain the Testament was regarding matters of settlement distribution.  
  
The Testament evolved a deeper meaning in the post-Emergency environment. As the story of a world that had destroyed itself in a massive war exacerbated by the use of hyper-empowering transhuman technology, the battered people of Sol felt a deep sense of kinship with the handful of surviving Kobolians. Multiple techno-rejectionist groups founded after the Emergency use the scattering of Kobolian symbols available as part of their memeset, based on the premise that “we may not get lucky  _twice_.”

* * *

 

namar13766 said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33261634#post-33261634)

> ...Somehow I am far less surprised than I probably should be.
> 
> What's the relationship between the Lords of Kobol and the Builders?

**Jade:**  Confused is probably the best answer. We're  _pretty sure_  the Lords didn't have any more direct contact with the Builders than we do, and we're  _pretty sure_  the Kobolians got to that tech level the hard way same as us, but you've got to remember that our only data points come from the journals of a Bajoran priest who visited once and wasn't impressed with the local "gods," and the memoirs of a transhuman burnout who was pretty bitter about how the whole thing ended. Not a lot of strong information to go around. Based on other discoveries & talking to other races that've been around longer, we know the Builders took populations of humans and a couple other species & stuck them on different planets up and down the spiral arm. Now, as to  _why_  they did that we still have no goddamned idea. It could've been part of some convoluted, eons-long master plan... or they could've just thought it was funny. No data either way, really.

* * *

 

GuestLurker said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33275074#post-33275074)

> Is Planetos a Kobol remnant or a different builder experiment? And will Jade go looking in on that?

**Jade:**  Planetos isn't Kobolian, almost 100% sure of that. Kobol is probably out on the other side of Blorg space in the Perseus Arm, and Planetos is downspin and coreward of Sol. Also, I haven't seen any Kobolian markers in the local language or culture. There might've been some major divergences and the whole weirwood thing skews the analysis, but unless the Kobolians got around more than we expected... I'm not considering it a high probability or anything.

 


	9. Worldbuilding: Transporters and You!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair, I'd been waiting for someone to ask this question for a while. This is one of the few non-Jade answers that'll make it to the scrapbook, because it's both informational and honestly I just really enjoyed writing it. And since it's my scrapbook, what I say goes so neyah. :)
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on March 29, 2017.

Keiran Halcyon said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33271996#post-33271996)

> One thing that occurred to me (not sure if it was addressed at some point or other)... does the  _Carefree Victory_  have a Transporter? What's the level of tech in the Fed with regard to that? (Ie. Can be fit on a shuttle ala TNG or only cruiser starships of the TOS era)

I'm glad you asked that question, Timmy! ("My name's Keiran."  _Silence, Timmy!_ ) Let me take you on a quick tour of the wonderful world of the transporter!  
  
[*insert peppy 1950s educational film music here*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvB4ZO3e61A)  
  
Now, I know what you're thinking Timmy: "I don't want my molecules taken apart and scrambled!" But that's just silly! Transporters don't take you apart molecule by molecule and transmit those molecules to the destination! That would be space magic! You see Timmy, transporter technology is derived from the same physics as that other great marvel of our age, the warp drive. Like the warp drive, the transporter folds space and subspace in a very specific way so that the object inside the field arrives at its destination without crossing the intervening distance! Neat, isn't it? The transporter has revolutionized everything from tourism to rescue response to space launch! But there's a catch, Timmy: transporters require lots of complex equipment to make the jump safely. Without that, you can only go in one direction! Take for example our intrepid explorer Captain Hasegawa! Say hi to the kids, Captain! ("Um, hi?") Her ship has a two-man transport alcove aboard, the biggest transporter a ship of that class can mount. Captain Hasegawa uses it to launch probes that don't fit in the standard probe launcher. If her ship is threatened ("Ahem. 'Oh no, evil beasts have gotten aboard and want to do cruel things to me. Alas. Alack.'") she can use the transporter to escape! But! Unless there's another station where she transports to, she can't use the transporter to come back to her ship!  
  
  



	10. Q&A / Worldbuilding: Jade Explains Starfleet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eagle-eyed readers of _The Westerosi_ might have noticed that Jade's Starfleet doesn't quite line up properly with any of the canonical representations of Starfleet. Obviously this was semi-deliberate on my part, and so the ask here was a good opportunity to give Jade's opinion on her home organization and explain a few more of the differences between canon Trek and Jade's not-quite-Trek. 
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on March 31, 2017 with followups on April 1 and April 2, 2017.

scorpio723 said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33336112#post-33336112)

> Okay, gotta ask, regarding the Federation military, what is that like? Like do we have a practical version of the  _Vengeance_  or something?

**Jade:**  Hokay, finally found time for a proper answer to this question. So... let me tell you about  ~~Homestuck~~  Starfleet.  
  
First off, you've got to understand that by design Starfleet isn't a military agency. It grew semi-organically out of the collected space science and exploration agencies of the founding Federal member worlds, in a way it was one of the first big steps towards what we know of as the Federal Worlds. It wasn't until the Rhiannsu War that the military got  _folded into_  Starfleet, and that was almost entirely because the various generals needed a group with experience in inter-sophont cooperation to help coordinate actions against the Grand Navy. After the war, when the Federal Worlds were founded properly, Starfleet went with and became one of the central bits of keeping the whole thing together.  
  
So Starfleet's not military, but it has military bits? How the fuck is  _that_  supposed to work? Compartmentalization, mostly. Fleet is divided up into four main branches, each one has their overall sphere and they only overlap in the early stages, when volunteers and recruits get inducted into Fleet, and on an at-need basis afterwards. The four branches are Starfleet proper, Starfleet Science Division, Starfleet Rangers and Starfleet Marine Corps. Or as we like to say in Fleet: goldshirts, blueshirts, greenshirts and redshirts.  
  
The goldshirts are pretty close to what you guys tend to think of as Starfleet. They're the most visible part of Fleet, and unto them are delivered the Starships. Note the capitalization: Starships aren't just any old ship with a warp drive, they're  _the_ top-line in Federal technology, usually staffed with some of the brightest people in the fleet and sent on high-priority missions where we need to be at our best. A Starship is a prestige posting, almost like... hell, an aircraft carrier would be for a 21st Century navy. Goldshirts also have the Starfleet Corps of Engineers under their wing. I wouldn't call them the  _preeminent_  mad scientists in the Federal Worlds, but they don't have a lot of competition at that level. If you need something impossible done, CoE can probably do it. If they can't do it, call a Builder.  
  
Blueshirts are the ones who're probably closest in spirit to the agencies that made up the first Starfleet. They're the ones who codified the whole “seek out new life and new civilizations” thing in the Fleet charter, and they take their job very seriously. Unlike in the shows, the blueshirts not only have their own ships but they have a lot of them, and they're sure as hell not flimsy little toys. Science can be a dangerous fucking proposition in this big bad galaxy of ours, and a Starfleet science vessel might not be able to throw a punch but it can sure as hell can  _take_  one. A Hikita class science ship is maybe... twice the size of my  _Victory_ , but it has shields that'd put a Thlingan battlecruiser to shame. The Science Division is also the most political of the branches; part of that's old memories on the part of scientists, but it's also because blueshirts with expertise in history, sociology, xenopsychology and so on get attached to the Foreign Office as diplomatic attaches all the time.  
  
What can I say about the Starfleet Rangers that I haven't already said? Us greenshirts are the first-in explorers, maybe not rockstar astronauts like in days of yore but we do our part flying out to the second star to the right and seeing what's there. There's an old, old Earth slogan—doesn't even mean our kind of ranger—that I've always liked: “Rangers Lead The Way.” That's what we do, we lead the way and mark the trails for the Starships and the blueshirts to do the more involved investigations behind us. Great work, if you've got a taste for it.  
  
And that leaves the Starfleet Marine Corps, the redshirts. The culmination of multiple species' worth of Proud Warrior Guy Tradition, forged in the fires of the Rhiannsu War and tempered through multiple small clashes with the Thlingans, the Kzinti, the Orion pirates and the  _motherfucking Optimals_. The Fleet Marines have a very specific duty: they maintain the borders as necessary, keep the peace, protect every world that's under the Federal aegis and make sure that an unshielded J-class can fly from the Rhiannsu border to Tholia and back without getting hassled. In peacetime a good chunk of this duty is taken up by member state forces, coast guard stuff really. In general the redshirts patrol the borders, keep an eye out for slavers near Protectorate systems and sometimes show the flag when the Foreign Office asks 'em to.  
  
Sometimes you get a joint operation. Let's take my incoming rescuers as an example: the flotilla is led by the Starship  _Kongou_ , which is part of the goldshirt branch, leading Science Squadron 47, a group of four blueshirt science ships. Or a while back I told a story about running a scout mission as a Ranger that was basically cover for redshirt intelligence gathering. This sort of thing happens all the damn time in the Fleet, and so far it's worked for a century or so. So we must be doing  _something_  right. 

* * *

 

Samarkand said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33373840#post-33373840)

> They might be technically considered "marines" for legal reasons due to certain pacifist-oriented provisions of Federation law. Rather like how Japanese Self Defense Force personnel are officially "civil servants", the Starfleet Marines might be considered "security and boarding units" even though they're a full-fledged military.

**Jade:**  That's the semi-official dodge for the redshirts in general, but the thought was more about why the  _navy_  was called the  _marines._  It goes back to Starfleet's founding as an international NGO: the original security detachments on Starfleet ships--remember, space science is  _way_  more exciting than sitting in a lab somewhere--started calling themselves the Marines almost as a private joke and it... stuck. After the throwdown with the Rhiannsu and the Federal Worlds folded most of the heavy iron into Fleet, the only branch set up to handle that sort of thing was the Corps and well... Pedants bitch about it every now and then but the people in the Corps don't really care much. A redshirt is a redshirt is a redshirt no matter if they carry a blaster rifle or drive a warship.  
  


Whale said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33374053#post-33374053)

> So, what does "Starfleet proper" actually do? Carry diplomats?

**Jade:**  The goldshirts are sort of the jack-of-all-trades branch. They carry diplomats, yeah. Starships undergo short and medium-range exploration missions: the classic Five Year Mission, which also has diplomatic implications since the borders aren't that far away so it's just as much an "introduce yourself to the new neighbors" mission as exploration. Corps of Engineers builds ships, starbases and outposts, maintains a lot of shared infrastructure. Goldshirts run customs on border worlds, a  _lot_  of administrative work pretty much everywhere. Their biggest job--and this  _will_  start a fight if there's enough goldshirts in the vicinity--is to look pretty for the general public. Starships and the big installations like the Yorktown class starbases are a visible sign of how neat we are, so seeing them out there doing stuff is important work in itself.

* * *

 

kilerog said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=33388786#post-33388786)

> Your Starfleet info post implied that the Federated worlds were already sort of coming together before they formally allied for defense. Just how close was Earth with its neighbors? Was the Federation mostly a "logical next step," or was it more just friendly or neutral relations until the war brought them together?

**Jade:**  Earth kinda had a rep for peacemaking in the two generations or so between developing warp drive and the throwdown with the Rhiannsu--we'd gone through one apocalyptic war in living memory and didn't really want to do the sequel after all--but uniting the kingdoms wasn't seriously on the sensors until after the war. Starfleet was a catalyst, it showed that you could get humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Xindi, Geonee and the like in one room without starting a fistfight or even unacceptable levels of bad language and  _get stuff done_. Starfleet proved that intersophont cooperation was viable, and a lot of starry-eyed thinkers saw it as The Wave Of The Future, but it took almost a decade after the Coalition forced the armstice with ch'Rhian for the politicos to take the plunge.  
  



	11. Q&A / Worldbuilding: A Mercifully Brief History of the Optimal Movement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Optimals have been mentioned in previous sections of the scrapbook, and this was the first point where I had an opportunity to explain who they were and why they were so important. Needless to say, they aren't nice people. The name "Optimal Movement" comes from Garfield & Judith Reeves-Stevens' classic ST novel _Federation_ (seriously, go check it out; it's hideously noncanonical at this point but it's still one of the best Trek novels ever) with alterations, riffs and expansions of my own.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on June 7, 2017. The followup was posted in response to a related-but-not-scrapbooked question on Sufficient Velocity on March 29, 2017.

OrkKaptin said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=35790673#post-35790673)

> So Optimals are equal parts Techbro and Eugenicist?

Eugenics aren't really a major part of the Optimal ideology, such as it exists in a vacuum. Techbros, though...   
  
**Jade:**  And now, a mercifully brief history of the Optimal Movement. Way the hell back in the beginning there was what you 21st century folks would call the [neoreactionary movement](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Neoreaction), a collection of authoritarian nerds and Silicon Valley people with more money than sense who came to the conclusion that the world had been on the wrong course since the end of absolute monarchy back in the 1800s and the only way to put things right would be a return to the Good Old Days where the king was on top and the peasants on the bottom. Naturally of course  _they_  expected to be the kings in this equation, or at minimum favored courtiers. Neoreaction (they abbreviated it NRx, so eventually everybody called 'em "Nerxies.") pollinated weirdly with the early transhuman movement, again because they both appealed to the Silly Valley crowd. The would-be masters of all creation didn't want to lose their creature comforts, and the promise of self-sufficient nanotech would let them live the way they wanted without all that messy democracy and shit.  
  
Now, in a saner timeline the nerxies would've vanished when their sugar daddies found something shinier to throw money at... but we don't live in that timeline. The 21st and 22nd centuries were pretty difficult in a lot of ways: everything kept changing quickly, and it was hard enough for the ordinary dude in the street to keep up, much less large institutions like governments. For a lot of people, handing responsibility over to the nerxies sounded better than trying to get a handle on all the ridiculous shit rolling down on them, and for the ambitious-but-not-that-bright the idea of becoming kings over the masses what scorned them sounded pretty good. There's also a good dollop of the good old-fashioned isms in nerxie rhetoric, since most of the people the nerxies rail against are either educated folk who can point out the nerxie argument is garbage, or poor people fleeing the damage done by climate change, who generally tend to be  _not like us_ and/or  _not from 'round here._  (Wherever "here" happens to be.)  
  
(As an aside, it's about this point that the early Martian settlers found the Testament of Thetis, and the nerxies and proto-Optimals latched onto the story of a world ruled by kings with advanced technology and said "see? That doesn't sound so bad, does it?" Ignoring that the story ends when the god-kings go to war and wipe out 99.999% of the population in their idiocy. But the Thetis document really did provide a big shot in the arm to the nerxies, since it proved it could work, at least in the short term.)  
  
So Earth's staggering along as best it can, and sometime in the mid-100s the nerxies finally hit on the right combination of authoritarian nostalgia and charismatic leadership and the Optimal Movement is born. Intending to "create optimal conditions to foster the growth and security of the human race" leaders like Philip Green, Adrik Thorsen, Noonien Singh and Nadezhda Kedzierski preached variations of the nerxie party line and, well... they got a lot of followers. Things weren't  _great_  on Earth at this point, even if they could've been a hell of a lot worse, and there were plenty of pissed-off people who used to think they were on top by virtue of their nationality or race or faith who were willing to follow the Optimals if it meant they could be Great Again. Optimals actually became the government legally in more than a few places before 183, scary as that might sound. And once in power they did most of the classic tricks from the authoritarian playbook, eliminating the opposition as swiftly and silently as possible, along with any other "non-Optimal" or troublesome groups.  
  
But that wasn't enough for the Movement. It never could've  _been_  enough. So in 183 the Optimals decided to launch an offensive against the meaty underbelly of the old nation-states. It took the rest of us twenty years and 1.6  _billion_  deaths before the last nerxie strongholds were broken and we could say the Emergency was over.   
  
So yeah, there's not a lot of love for Optimals in our neighborhood.

* * *

 

KnightDisciple said: [↑](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/goto/post?id=8171519#post-8171519)

> What is "The Emergency"?

In much the same way that the Eugenics Wars or World War III are defining moments in Trek history, the Emergency is the defining moment of Jade's world. Here's how she put it in a bit of cut dialogue:  
  


> "There was," Captain Jade began, then cut herself off with a mirthless laugh. "I was about to say 'there was a war,' but that's understating things to an incredible degree. Imagine... the end of Valyria, or the Long Night, or any other great disaster you might care to think of, and then roll all of that up into one great big ball of catastrophe. Armies fighting with weapons beyond comprehension, the ground and seas and even the air seeming to rebel... it was terrible, and it lasted for an entire generation."
> 
> "A terrible thing," Tyrion said. "Who won, in the end?"
> 
> "Nobody. There were no winners, Lord Tyrion. Only survivors."

So... yeah. Things got hairy there for a while.


	12. Omake: Time to Pay the Piper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my 2017 summer vacation, I went out to Kennedy Space Center, a place that has been dear to my heart for pretty much my entire life but I'd never had the money or the time to actually visit before. Obviously, I was inspired. :) So yes, Starfleet HQ in Jade's world is at KSC, not San Francisco like Gene would've wanted. Oh well. This is also a bit of an experiment in Jade's adventures post- _Westerosi_ , I can't say it's 100% canonical but it is interesting. Also, Sarella's bit at the very end, because I thought it was funny. :)
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity on November 20, 2017.

**A LONG WAYS FROM THE WATER GARDENS**

  
Sarella had expected many things from the heart of Starfleet. Her experiences on  _Carefree Victory_  and  _Kongou_  had accustomed her to the clean, white walls of Starfleet ships, then the twisting jewel of the sky-city Canaveral left her overwhelmed by its grandeur. But these, if Lady Jade and Captain Kirk were to be believed, were merely  _border outposts_  on the marches of the Federal Worlds. When Lady Jade learned she was being summoned to speak to the admirals at the Federal core, Sarella jumped at the chance to see the full majesty of her newly-adopted people.  
  
The place she found herself in was very different from anything she had imagined. Starfleet’s admirals ruled from a complex of palaces on a seacoast— _appropriate enough_ , she assumed—that reminded her of the stark plainness of Winterfell and the incredible wealth of Volantis or Qarth. The buildings were much like the towers of Canaveral, big rambling things made of gray-white stone, burnished metal and insane amounts of glass. The air outside was hot and humid in a way that reminded her of Sunspear’s docks. Lizard-lions seemed to be in every pool; she’d seen more of the bloody things in the few days since their arrival than she had in twenty-odd years living in Westeros. She mentioned this to Lady Jade, and she shrugged and said “It’s Florida. Toss a pebble in a pond and it’ll bounce off three gators and a heron before it touches water.”  
  
The heat hovered on the edge of unpleasant as they walked down the wide streets between the palaces. Few people were on the streets as the sun climbed into the sky. On the northern horizon Sarella glimpsed a square tower that reminded her of Storm’s End standing free of any other buildings. The white wall had splotches of color on it—presumably sigils, though the tower was too far away to make out any detail without a spyglass. “A castle?” she wondered.  
  
Lady Jade turned to look where Sarella was looking. “A shipyard, actually,” she said. “That’s where some of the first sky-ships were built and left the ground, lo those many years ago.”  
  
“Huh.”  
  
“This is  _hallowed ground_ , Al,” Jade went on. “Here and Gagarin’s Start on the other side of the world, this is where it all began.” She pointed at a set of tall, thin structures a little further off the horizon from the great tower. “My ancestors left Earth for Mars from right over there about three hundred years ago. Whenever I come to the Cape it always feels like I’m walking into history.”  
  
Sarella thought about that. She could see it, she supposed, if she had the chance to walk the cities of the Rhoyne, or visit the Summer Islands where her mother presumably still lived and sailed. “It’s quite nice,” she noted.  
  
“You mean aside from the heat, the humidity and the alligators,” Jade snorted. “Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty country but I always felt like I was going to melt or catch fire when I was at the Academy.” They resumed walking towards an unassuming stone and glass building with the blue and gold banner of the Federal Worlds flying over it. A small guard post sat near the glass doors. Jade stopped suddenly and put her hand on Sarella’s shoulder.  
  
“Al,” she said quietly and seriously, “I have to go in there; you don’t. If you turn around right now and take a transport back into town you can talk to the Foreign Office about repatriation. It might take a couple years but you can get home. If you go in with me you might not be able to go home ever again. I don’t want to force you to lose your family, Al. This is your last chance.”  
  
Sarella chuckled. “Oh my lady,” she said. “I’ve been with you from the Wall to Qarth, stood by your side while you bearded wolves, lions, stags, dragons, squids, falcons and mine own kin to boot. What’s another pack of angry lords between friends?”  
  
The lady didn’t seem to find the humor in it all, searching Sarella’s face carefully for something. “You’re sure?” she asked.  
  
She took her lady’s hand and squeezed gently. “I made my choice, my lady,” she replied. “I cannot abandon you now.”  
  
“Alright then,” Jade said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do this.” They walked up to the doors and were met by a strange creature at the guard post. Sarella had seen all sorts of odd creatures on  _Kongou_  and in the sky-city, but this was the first time she’d seen one of these beings up close. It was like an owl, if owls grew to be a little larger than Tyrion Lannister and had proper arms instead of wings. The owl-man was clad in a red tunic similar to Lady Jade’s green, with the golden Starfleet sigil on its breast.  
  
“Commander,” Jade greeted.  
  
“Captain Hasegawa,” the owl-man replied. It turned towards Sarella, looking at her with pale brown eyes. “And guest, it seems?”  
  
“New immigrant,” the captain supplied helpfully.  
  
“Ah, of course. Your name, ma’am?” asked the owl-man. Sarella smiled. She’d thought about the name she’d take for weeks, ever since they left the sky-city.  _Sand_  was a good enough name for the Seven Kingdoms, but it was still a bastard’s name. If she was going to leave that life behind, then she needed to put the bastard’s name behind her. And in a flash of inspiration whilst watching the stars stream by, the perfect name came to her.  
  
“Sarella Skywalker,” she said proudly. The owl-man’s eyes blinked audibly, then turned to stare hard at Lady Jade.  
  
“I didn’t do it,” Jade said hastily. “I swear to high heaven I had  _no idea_  she was going to bust that one out.”  
  
“Hn. Whatever,” the creature replied. “You’re free to proceed, Captain, Ms. Skywalker.” Having completed its duty the owl-man retreated into the guard shack, and the glass doors opened. A rush of cool air washed over them as the front hall of the palace beckoned.  
  
“(Did I do something wrong?)” Sarella whispered. She’d been so sure that was the right name. The first of her kin to travel through the stars, the name was simple, easy to remember… what had provoked such a reaction from the owl?  
  
“(No, it’s… you know what, it’s a long story.)” replied Jade. “(If this goes well enough I’ll explain it over dinner, okay?)” She looked towards the open door. “Well, my apprentice, shall we meet our destiny?”  
  
Sarella laughed. “By your leave, Captain.”  
  
Together they crossed the threshold.


	13. Q&A: Jade Hasegawa, Star Wars Hipster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wonderful thing about the future is that you don't know what's going to be remembered as a classic and what's going to be forgotten. After my dumb Star Wars joke in "Time to Pay the Piper" that sparked some discussion and of course Jade had to give her opinion on one of the most enduring bits of 20th and 21st century media, and how it's changed over the roughly 300 years between our time and hers. 
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles on November 20 and 21, 2017.

LGear said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=41490222#post-41490222)

> It's so logical as a name for someone from Westeros, and yet so hilarious in Starfleet. I'm sure the explanation after dinner will involve a Star Wars movie marathon through all 24 movies? 

**Jade:**  Nah. I mean, the first six episodes form a perfectly suitable narrative chain for explaining the basics of the mythology and the themes. The next six are decent but suffer from early 21st century nostalgia pandering especially in the first three episodes. Episode 13's kind of a hot mess and the mainline series doesn't really recover from it. But then you get into the post-copyright remakes and remixes and there's some real gold there. There was an Andorian version that happened back when I was in school that  _everybody_  loved, and of course the classic "authentic" 5-hour Centaurian Hyperrealist edition which is the one that gets taught in Early Modern Visual Lit classes. Personally I think the 20th century original has more charm than a lot of the others, but that's a hipster opinion these days.

* * *

 

quantumavenger said: [↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=41494143#post-41494143)

> The Original Klingon version is, of course, superior to all of these.

**Jade:**  Yeah, I wouldn't say that really. Thlingan artists are really devoted to the original text--preferring a mixture of the 1977 and 1997 scripts for most adaptations--so they follow it in very granular detail. More than one production will use visual effects created using authentic 1970s techniques, even if they're mixing up the art styles a little... which is neat from an artisan's point of view but again, kind of a limited appeal if you're not a Thlingan purist or a hipster. You  _do_  get good performances out of the Imperium though: Korax has probably the best Solo of his generation.  
  
There are a few interesting experimental Thlingan adaptations/inspired-bys out there. My favorite recently was  _The Hidden Fortress_ , an adaptation of Episode 4 (with some elements from Episode 5 and fragments of the largely-lost 1974-75 drafts) set entirely on Qo'noS during the Hur'Q Anarchy. It's staged as a historical drama of the reconquest, casting the heroes as agents of the Empire fighting against a warlord using Hur'Q castoff technology to terrorize his people.  _Hidden Fortress_ was kind of controversial when it was released in the Imperium, because the whole thing was also a commentary on the orthodox history of the post-Anarchy reconquest and the failings of  _klin zha_  in government in particular. As revisionist histories go it's no  _Valhalla_  but it still has a lot of charm.


	14. Crossover: The Green Witch and the Black Princess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quickie collaboration between myself and Barnes, author of the ASoIaF SI story _[The Black Princess](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12690321/1/The-Black-Princess-An-SI-Story)_. I started reading the story and really ended up digging Barnes' titular Baratheon princess Alysanne and started wondering about what would've happened had Jade landed in that version of Westeros. That got Barnes thinking and, well, it kinda snowballed.
> 
> (Incidentally, this also set off a vocal debate about how the Prime Directive applied to self-inserts. Entertaining, mostly, but not scrapbook-worth IMO.)
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles between January 17 and January 21, 2018.

**Mal-3 said:** **[↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=43220323#post-43220323) **

> _The Star Trek future lady touched something out of sight, the air filled with_ _[very familiar music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo)_ _and my brain just ground completely to a halt._  
>   
>  "Oh... shit," I think I squeaked. She just gave me a really patient smile.

Sounds about right. And getting caught cribbing from John Denver would be yet another shock to Aly after riding into Winterfell. To borrow from Chapter 9 of  _The Westerosi_ :

> _King Robert stared at the sky-galleon for a long moment, hand outstretched as if to touch the thing. I’d wager that Robert didn’t believe the dispatches until this moment, Tyrion thought. He then shook like a great shaggy dog and spurred his horse to enter the gates, the rest of the party behind him._  
>   
>  Most of the party, that is.   
>   
> Alysanne remained, staring dumbly at the metal ship, jaw working silently. Tyrion imagined a stiff breeze would topple the girl from her mount at that moment. Finally, Ser Guyard moved to take the reigns of the princess's horse, the long suffering knight leading it and his charge through the gates.   
>   
> As they passed by, Tyrion could hear Alysanne's faint whispers as she craned her head to stare back at the fallen star. She muttered the same thing, over and over, as if all other words were lost to her.  
>   
> "What the fuck."

* * *

**Barnes said:** **[↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=43316857#post-43316857) **

> _Sounds about right. And getting caught cribbing from John Denver would be yet another shock to Aly after riding into Winterfell. To borrow from Chapter 9 of The Westerosi:_

And then you managed to get me thinking...

**Let's see how far this train really goes said:**

> _ **LOG ENTRY: SURFACE DAY 57** _

> __  
> (…)  
>   
>  Anyway, impressions: so far I’ve only really met the king and his two eldest so far, though I expect to meet much of the court before the finally return south. King Robert reminds me of a lot of people I’ve met in Fleet: very big on eating, drinking and being merry and not so much on leadership, administration and all that jazz. To be fair, I might be selling him short. He did just get here after all, and today was all about the big welcoming party so eating, drinking and being merry was the order of the day. I certainly hope I’m selling him short, royal patronage (or at least royal approval) would be a big help in figuring out this whole weirwood mystery.  
>   
> The kids are… there’s something seriously weird going on there.  
>   
> Alright, let me try and figure this out. The king’s two oldest are Alysanne and Joffrey. Joffrey appears to be the heir apparent—I guess Westeros operates on male-preference primogeniture?—and he seems to be charming enough but it’s all surface. There’s something lurking under his veneer of personability and I’m not sure I like what it is. Alysanne is the eldest child, huge for her age (seriously, she’s maybe a centimeter shorter than I am and I’m on the tall end for this planet!) and there’s something just as off about her as Joffrey. Moreso, actually; Joffrey I can at least get something of a read on. She had her eyes on me whenever I was in line-of-sight and whenever I caught a look at her she seemed… spooked. It wasn’t just like I was a weird foreigner hanging out in a magic ship—which, you know, I’ve seen that one already—but more like, I dunno, I can’t quite put words to it.  
>   
> I might be able to put music to it, though. Tonight’s entertainment pricked my ears, and after reviewing drone recordings, well… I might’ve stumbled onto a General Order One violation in the offing on top of everything else I’ve got on my plate at the moment. It doesn’t seem to be that serious a violation, but I’m looking at it from the edge of civilization so it might be bigger than what I can see right now. (Note to self: Ask this Lynesse Flowers kid about where she got her music from. Follow the money, as the saying goes.)  
>   
> My initial meet with the king and his kids wasn’t long, but Joffrey seems interested in getting me in the royal court, as a curiosity, a way to keep Stark from having access to me, I don’t know. On the one hand being beholden to Joffrey or Robert doesn’t sit right but… if I’m right about the violation then sussing out what’s going on, well, it might not be top priority but it’s a strong number two. Swimming in court politics might be the only way to find out what’s going on and if it’s linked to everything else.  
>   
> Or it could be a massive coincidence.  
>   
> I can’t possibly be that lucky.

* * *

> I keep trying to finish my next update but arrgh:

> _ The Songbird _

> __  
> "Excuse me, Lynesse, was it? Would you mind if I bent your ear for a bit?"  
>   
>  Bend it all you want, just please stop speaking so loudly. Lynesse Flowers thought, wincing at the voice. While you're at it, kindly do something about the sun? Or get me a drink before this bloody hangover kills me.  
>   
> Rather than give voice to her thoughts, the bard forced her face into a practiced, pleasantly neutral expression and turned to face the one who'd spoken. Blearily, Lynesse recognized the form of the witch that had set so many tongues to wagging recently. Or at least recognized the glass that the woman wore on her face, last evening had gotten quite blurry. It was a unique ornament, very fetching, actually. She briefly entertained the thought of commissioning something similar for herself, then remembered she should answer the question.  
>   
> "By all means, how might I serve you, my Lady Jade?" Lynessse answered with a slight curtsy, proud at both speaking without a croak and having remembered the woman's given name. Her house's name was a lost cause though, Hay-something-something. Aly would probably add it to her collection of nonsense words, she thought crossly.  
>   
> "I wanted to ask you about last night's playlist," the sorceress said, oblivious to the bard's internal grumbling. "Several of your songs piqued my interest. I thought we could compare notes, swap a tune or two."  
>   
> "I'd like nothing more, my Lady," Lynesse replied, perking up at the offer. "Perhaps we could speak over breakfast? I find myself quite famished, this morning."  
>   
> Vague memories of vomiting into a bucket surfaced briefly. Or had it been a helmet? It had been dark, Lynesse pondered, probably past the hour of the owl. Either way, she'd found neither upon awakening in the kennels. She'd since made herself presentable, and was looking for the kitchens anyways.  
>   
> "That'd be fine," the green witch agreed with a slight nod. "I wouldn't mind sharing musical inspirations over a bite to eat."  
>   
> Perhaps it was something in Lady Jade's tone, or perhaps it was the way her glasses glinted just so in the morning sun, but something made Lynesse suppress a grimace. It's not a secret she demanded I keep, but I just know Aly's not going to want me to give her credit. Innocent interest or not, I haven't gotten this far by ignoring my instincts...ugh, it's far too early and my head's pounding far too much for intrigue right now, the bard concluded. Aly's better equipped to deal with a witch's interest than I. She'll be wroth, but will understand after she calms. If not, there's always Tyrion.

 

* * *

**Barnes said:** **[↑](https://forums.spacebattles.com/goto/post?id=43440685#post-43440685) **

> _I keep trying to finish my next update but arrgh:_

Feel my pain and know my suffering:

> _ **JAIME** _

> __  
> Another night, another lesson about the stars with the Ulthosi. Tonight the children seemed more interested in things like the sky-krakens from the other night, peppering the witch with questions about things the might live in the sky alongside the krakens.  
>   
>  “Could it be that other animals live in the sky as well?” asked the younger Stark boy. “If krakens can swim between stars, does that mean fish could do so as well? Or birds fly?”  
>   
> “Or wolves run?” added the ugly little Stark girl. “And stags and lions too, I suppose,” she added reluctantly after her brother nudged her. Jaime suppressed a snicker at the byplay.  
>   
> “Well, that I don't know,” the witch said, adjusting her glass. “But it's not impossible, I suppose. All sorts of strange things out there in the galaxy.”  
>   
> Tommen perked up. “Aly knows a story about Galaxy!” he piped. The witch paused in her fiddling at his words.  
>   
> “Oh?” she said in reply.  
>   
> “Aly told us the story of Ser Luke and Princess Leia and their war against the evil Emperor of Galaxy,” Tommen went on. At this the witch stiffened, not much but just enough that Jaime took notice. Now what on earth could make a woman go rigid like that? “About the Jedi and the song and their swords of light, too! Do you know the story, Lady Jade?”  
>   
> The witch gave Tommen a considering look. “I might know that story, along with a few others,” she said with feigned casualness. “Where did Aly end at?”  
>   
> “With the end,” Tommen replied, sounding puzzled. “Ser Luke and his allies killed the Emperor's second dragon and the Emperor along with it. Aly said that was the end.” He blinked and in the dim starlight looked suddenly eager. “Is there more?”  
>   
> “Well now,” said the witch, “there could be. But I don't know if you really want to hear about it...”  
>   
> Tommen all but threw himself down at the witch's feet. “Oh please, Lady Jade!” he begged. The witch gave him a look, then settled back into the pose Jaime had come to know as her storytelling posture.  
>   
> “If you insist then, little prince. And if the others don't mind putting off the lesson more...?” None of the other children seemed interested in the sky anymore, all looking raptly at the witch. “Well then. So, to pick up from what you know: Ser Luke and his comrades defeated the Emperor and won the day, and for a time peace ruled all the lands of the galaxy. Such things never last forever though, and eventually the darkness rose again to threaten all good things. Those who had fought the Emperor were old now, and while still strong the demands of peace and wisdom had taken their toll. This is the end of their story, and it's always a little sad. But it's the beginning of a new story, of the champions chosen by the song to take up the banner against evil in their stead, and it's happy. With that in mind, let me tell you the tale of the Last and First Jedi...”

  



	15. Crossover / Omake: Not the Middle of Nowhere, But You Can See It From There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of an odd duck, this one. It was intended to be the opening to an aborted post- _Westerosi_ crossover with the Mass Effect series, but the actual Mass Effect elements of the story either weren't gelling very well or they were the sort of rote nonsense every other Mass Effect crossover has done before. While the idea still interests me a little, since I have nothing really new or interesting to add to the conversation I decided to shelve the general idea and just release this part. I believed this had some value to my readers, since we meet part of Jade's family. And yes, before you ask Carlos Hasegawa is an expy of the Carlos you're probably thinking of. Just an expy, though: some things you poke with a stick, some you don't. As for the other implications... I won't say this is canonical, but I won't say it's _not_ canonical either. You'll have to go on faith. :)
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity on February 10, 2018.

**IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE...**

  
The Arcturus system was a well-known landmark in the Federal core, an aging orange giant easily visible from any of the homeworlds. Despite this status, the system itself was lacking habitable planets and considered a poor choice for free-floating settlements. Therefore, though knowing  _where_  Arcturus was was important to Federal navigation, actually  _visiting_  the star was—until quite recently—a rarity.  
  
“Why are we here?” Sarella asked as they stepped across from  _Carefree Victory_  to the surprisingly large forward base orbiting at considerable distance from the giant star.  
  
“It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it?” her mistress replied. “Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a god watching everything, you know, with a plan for us and stuff. I dunno, but it keeps me up at night.”  
  
Sarella suppressed a long-suffering sigh. “I will point out,” she said with only the faintest irritation, “that jape wasn't terribly funny the first time you said it, let alone whatever number you've reached by now.”  
  
“Oh all right,  _fine_ ,” Jade rolled her eyes. “I have no idea why we're here. Somebody called for a Ranger and we happened to be in the neighborhood.”  
  
“See, was that so difficult?” Sarella smiled patiently, recalling all the times she saw Ellaria keep her father focused and pointed in the correct direction. “It is interesting that there would be such a display of power here, though,” she continued. “Interesting and a little worrying.”  
  
Jade hummed. “Mm, yeah,” she said. “Arcturus is supposed to be an empty system and we're nowhere near any borders. Whatever's going on must be big.”  
  
“You have no idea,” said a deep voice ahead of them. Sarella looked away from her handbrain and saw a tall man in a long white coat standing in the entranceway waiting for them.  
  
“Carlos!” Jade exclaimed, wrapping the man up in an embrace. “They actually let you out of your cage! What will the grad students think?”  
  
“Oh, I'm sure they'll be disappointed,” he said dryly, returning the embrace. “It's good to see you, Jadey.”  
  
“How's your boy? And what are you  _doing_  here? I'd been thinking of using some banked leave to visit but we got called here instead.”  
  
“He's fine, mostly. I've been on field assignment here for a couple months.” Carlos chuckled. “I've been getting calls from  _his_  students, actually. His broadcasts have been getting... weirder than usual.”  
  
Jade laughed. “That's a high bar to clear,” she said, releasing him and gesturing in Sarella's direction. “Lemmie do this before I get any ruder. Al, this is my kid brother Carlos. Carlos, this is civilian auxiliary Sarella Skywalker, my top sidekick from Westeros.”  
  
Sarella bowed to her mistress's brother. “An honor to meet you, Maester Carlos.”  
  
Carlos looked a little confused. “Maester?” he murmured, then brightened with a snap of his fingers. “Oh, right, the science monks from your homeworld! It's nice to meet you, Ms. Skywalker.” He smiled, just a little. “I'm told you've been...  _studying under_  my sister,” he added.  
  
“Carlos,” Jade said, a hint of warning in her voice.  
  
Sarella felt the smirk begin, tried to suppress it, failed utterly and let it form. “Oh aye,” she replied. “She's an  _excellent_  teacher and an eager pupil as well. Learning is a  _mutual_  thing, is it not?”  
  
“(Oh dear god,)” Jade mumbled, eyes darting between the two of them. “(This is your revenge for that thing with your dad, isn't it?)”  
  
“I'm not at all surprised by that,” Carlos said with a knowing nod. “Hell, I remember our mothers saying something  _very_  similar just before she left for the Academy...”  
  
“ _Carlos I swear to God! In a trunk, off a **cliff!**_ ” Jade snapped. Her brother tried to look innocent, failed, and settled for looking smug instead.


	16. Crossover: The Green Witch and the Black Princess, pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an expansion on the original two lines that started the whole crossover fest between me and Barnes. I ended up writing this as a thank-you to the fans who were very supportive when I told them that the next chapter of _Subprime Directives_ was going to be delayed due to personal issues. I don't have a lot of fans, but the ones I have are pretty good.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity on April 8, 2018.

**ALYSANNE**

And the sorta-scary Star Trek future lady just  _looked_  at me. Patiently.  
  
My throat closed up for a moment. “Uhh...” I said brilliantly. I looked to the door but the evil future thing refused to open. “I can explain?” I offered.  
  
Captain Hasegawa’s smile never wavered. “I’m sure you can,” she said.  
  
“It’s a long story?”  
  
She spread her hands wide. “I’ve got  _nothing_  but time, princess.”  
  
I gulped and nodded, trying to figure out exactly how to explain this. Ever since I woke up, became aware of who I was and used to be or whatever, I’ve done my best to try and ignore all the terrifying implications of it all and just live my life. “Well, um...”  
  
“Where’s your ship, Alysanne?” The captain beat me to the punch, which did an excellent job of derailing my train of thought.  
  
“My wha?”  _Ship? What does she mean, my ship?_  I thought, then it came to me, and she confirmed it:  
  
“You went native pretty well, ‘princess,’” Hasegawa replied with some serious steel in her voice. “But it’s always the little things that trip people up. So... where’s your ship? Who’re you working with? How long have you been on Planetos?”  
  
“I... don’t have a ship?” I ventured. The captain seemed taken aback by the thought.  
  
“You don’t have a ship.”  
  
“No!” I was starting to get a little peeved. Just because you have your nifty sci-fi toys doesn’t mean the rest of us do, lady! “All I know is that one day I was just an ordinary little girl and then I was  _me_. Maybe it’s the work of some bastard of a godlike energy being that thought it’d be funny? Just toss some poor sap into the body of a Westerosi girl with advance knowledge of the  _titanic shitstorm_  about to come down and laugh as she flails around trying to stop it without people thinking she’s crazy? Which doesn’t fucking work because half the people I know think I’m nuts anyway, it’s just I’m a princess so they can’t  _do_  anything about it. My dad’s a depressed drunk, my mom’s a bitch, my brother’s a budding psycho I keep trying to nudge towards acceptable psychopathy which is way too fucking common in this place as it is, the whole thing’s about to fall apart and I don’t know what to do. I really don’t need somebody coming in on their high fucking spaceship horse thinking I’m some kind of weird Prime Directive criminal on top of all that!”  
  
When the floodgates opened, Hasegawa was looking at me a little like Captain Picard looked at people who fucked up, all stern and kind of angry. By the time I was done, she’d leaned back and looked less stern. Not less angry, but more concerned? It was hard to place the look. “A real, live isekai,” she muttered. “Just when I thought I’d seen everything.”  
  
“A who what now?”  
  
She blinked, then slumped a little “Thanks for the taste in literature, dad,” she mumbled. “Not relevant. Okay, Aly,” she said,  _not princess, or ‘princess’ or even Allysane, ‘Aly.’_  “I want you to tell me everything. What you remember about getting here, what this advanced knowledge is, all of it. I don’t know what’s going on here but I promise I’ll help you sort it out. And then we’re going to find whoever’s responsible and give them the kicking of their lives, okay?”  
  
I could get behind that.


	17. Worldbuilding / Media: Flags of the Federal Worlds Universe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As weird as it sounds, I enjoy building the world Jade Hasegawa has her many adventures in almost as much as I do writing those adventures. Worldbuilding has been my focus since I got started in fan writing back in the late 90s, and one of the things I love to do is make art for my projects. I can't actually _draw_ , but I have learned a trick or two with regards to Illustrator, and my Google Image Search kung-fu is strong. So when the fell mood ovetakes me I dive into a graphics program and end up with, well, stuff like this.
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles, Sufficient Velocity and the miscellaneous flags thread on AlternateHistory.com on September 12, 2018.

  
_The Builders (75Kya - 60Kya)_

**The Makers of Wonders**  
Thousands of years before any of the current nations existed, the Builders roamed through known space creating structures so advanced that even today they seem outright magical. The Builders are believed to be responsible for the panhuman diaspora roughly 70,000 years prior to now, among other things. Whether the Builders went extinct or just moved elsewhere isn’t known. All anybody does know is, they seem to have prepared for the moment...

  
_Ziru Sirka (-1309 - current)_

**The Grand Empire of Stars**  
One of the oldest nations in this part of the galaxy, the Ziru Sirka controls a vast region of space on the far side of Deneb from Earth. Ruled by the panhuman Vilani, the Empire survives through extensive centralization and assimilationist tactics: new sophonts either adopt Vilani culture (when possible) or it is forced upon them. Long-range traders and adventurers bring stories of the Vilani to Federal space, and Starfleet has been thinking about organizing an expedition in that direction...

  
_First Federation (477 - current)_

**In Darkness We Dwell**  
Roughly 80% of the galaxy by mass consists of red and brown dwarf stars deemed unsuitable for colonization by the majority of sophonts. The First Federation (not truly the first, but the latest in a long line of nations adopting the name) makes its home around these stars. Composed of refugees, exiles, retirees and their descendants, the First Federation has outposts and colonies everywhere in Federal space, overlapping and interpenetrating all the major polities. Despite this omnipresence, the Federationers keep to themselves, preferring to stay away from “brightlander” antics as best they can.

  
_Rihannsu Star Empire (1533 - current)_

**For God, His Majesty and the Empire!**  
Expansion is everything. The Rihan people know this better than any others, and so to maintain their quality of life and their status in the galaxy the Rihannsu Empire expands, bringing the gift of civilization to lesser races while taking fair recompense for their noble efforts. When the Empire brushes against nations it cannot force to submit, the Great Game begins and things can get... very interesting.

  
_Thlingan Imperium (1673 - current)_

**Victory and Honor, Fortune and Glory**  
Forged in the fires of conquest by Kahless the Unforgettable, nearly broken by the alien Hur’Q invaders and then reforged by Kahless III, the Thlingan Imperium stands tall and proud as one of the galaxy’s great nations. The empire strode forth to conquer, and now rules a respectable chunk of territory as well as dozens of sophont races living under the blood-colored banner of the Unforgettable and his followers.

  
_Vulcan Directorate (1931 - current)_

**Logic Dictates**  
The Irrationalist Wars nearly destroyed Vulcan, and only the logic of Surak provided a way forward. The Directorate was founded on Surakian principles of rationality in order to keep the extreme Vulcan emotional core balanced and unable to unduly influence decisionmaking in the rebuilt state. Armed with new tools the Vulcans set forth to explore the galaxy in peace, on the logical (if not necessarily correct) premise that other sophonts who achieved the same thing would be above things like conflict for petty reasons...

  
_Andorian Union (1941 - current)_

**Towards A More Perfect Union**  
Most species only reach the stars after some form of near-apocalyptic disaster or extended campaign of bloody war. Most species are not the Andorians. Having successfully conquered their need for intra-species conflict early in their development, the Andorian Union formed from a network of economic unions and set forth into the galaxy. Unfortunately, this instilled a sort of blithe arrogance in the Andorians, leading them to conflicts with the Vulcans, Xindi and eventually the Rihan that would’ve gotten them conquered if the Terrans hadn’t shown up...

  
_United Earth Organization (2026 - 2186)_

**Stumbling Into the Future**  
As the 21st Century rolled on, the old United Nations started to see more and more cracks show up in its facade. UEO was formed as a counterpart to the UN, with a more holistic view of uniting everybody, including non-governmental entities and even some corporations. As the UN declined UEO rose, coming into its destiny during the Emergency as it unified Earth-side opposition to the Optimals. United Earth was subsumed into the Solar Organization in 2186.

  
_Tellarite Commonwealth (2054 - current)_

**Argue Like Your Life Depended On It**  
Tellarite culture values debate and discussion to a point far beyond most other sophonts. This is in no small part due to the Voice Wars, when pre-unification Tellarite leaders attempted to foist conformity on the people and the people pushed back hard. The commonwealth that formed took the shape of an extreme direct democracy where every Tellarite would be able to participate and debate. The Commonwealth was intrigued by the Federal Worlds, but held off on joining until 2291, in order to see how well the whole thing worked at first.

  
_Lunar Mutual Assistance Union (2060 - current)_

**One Small Step**  
The LMAU formed as a result of a series of strikes and incidents that took place in corporate outposts on Luna in the late 2050s. The “Red Moon” incidents resulted in these outposts and settlements becoming effectively autonomous from Earth control. The LMAU was the first offworld group to join the UEO, in 2063.

  
_Antarctic Subterranean Nation (2100 - current)_

**The Frozen Shield of Democracy**  
Antarctica was the last unsettled frontier on Earth until the mid-2040s, when the Revised Antarctic Treaty allowed for “limited” settlement. Limited is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and soon enough there were plenty of people living in the frozen frontier. The ASN declared independence from a dozen nations in 2100, and proved itself a player when it - and ASN Chair Zhou Mei-Ling - spearheaded the fight against the Optimal World State during the Emergency.

  
_Rightly-Guided Mandate of Xindus (2119 - current)_

**Six Peoples, One World**  
Xindus is a world where (depending on who you ask) either a miracle or Shenanigans occured. Six separate spohont species rose to civilization at almost exactly the same time there, and so Xindi history was a little... hectic. Enough so that the planet had to be evacuated during the 21st Century. A religious reformation (”look what we did to ourselves!”) swept through the Six Peoples in the wake of the evacuation ending in the Mandate, an ecological theodemocracy with the main goal of restoring Father-Mother Xindus to its former glory.

  
_Blorg Commonality (2125 - current)_

**Friends Through Eternity, Loyalty, Honesty**  
Early Blorg looked up at the sky through their sense organs and hoped that they weren’t alone. When they finally reached the stars they found out they weren’t, and the people rejoiced. Ever since, armed with an intuitive grasp of interstellar trade and an almost reckless naivtey the Blorg have ventured out into the galaxy, finding friends (and “friends”) all over the place. Federal space is on the fringes of Blorg trade routes for now, but the idea of the Federal Worlds enchants the circulatory mechanisms of every Blorg who hears about it...

  
_Geonee Confederation (2130 - current)_

**To Better Ourselves**  
The Geonee consider themselves the spiritual heart of the Federal Worlds. They may even be right. Panhumans from a high-gravity world, the Geonee had a pretty standard technological climb up until a collective of genetically-engineered “supermen” tried to take over and nearly blew the planet to hell. Luckily for the Geonee, not long after the Eugenics Wars ended a Geonee scientist’s primitive warp drive caught the attention of a Vulcan scout. Ever since, the Geonee have been starry-eyed pupils of Surakian logic... even when their own stabs at are somewhat lacking.

  
_Optimal World State (2139 - 2147)_

**Fascism For a New Era**  
Born from the neoreactionary memeplex of the early 21st Century, the Optimal Movement was a coalition of ethnonationalists, general authoritarians, corporate alpha males and assorted world-burners who thought that the world would be better run if they were in charge. To this end they created the Optimal World State, a quasi-fascist mirror of the UEO and prepared to fight for their beliefs. Eight years and a billion lives later, the Optimals were thrown into the dustbin of history alongside all the other would-be conquerors. Oh well.

  
_First Martian Republic (2140 - 2174)_

**“To Provide For The Welfare Of Our People...”**  
During the Emergency, all contact and supply from Earth was cut off. In response, the various colonial leaders on Mars banded together and created the Martian Republic to see their citizens through to the end of the crisis. Republican soldiers were some of the fiercest antifa fighters through the entire Emergency, successfully liberating Jupiter and hundreds of free solar habitats. The First Republic ended in 2174, as contact with Earth improved and the need for lifeboat survival measures dwindled.

  
_Planetary Commonwealth (2141 - 2186)_

**“For The Good of All We Stand Together”**  
When Earth was cut off from the rest of the system, all the (non-Optimal aligned) settlements and habitats banded together to keep each other alive, keep the Optimals off their backs and keep the lights on long enough to see the end of the Emergency. The Commonwealth served that purpose, and in the post-war recovery acted as a diplomatic buffer and/or de facto system leadership. The PC eventually was subsumed alongside UEO into the Solar Organization in 2186.

  
_United States of America–Chicago Administration (2142 - 2176)_

**Picking Up the Pieces**  
The United States was hammered badly during the Emergency. Between the Black May strikes, a strong Optimal insurgency and several states outright seceding to join the World State the US was forced to sit out much of the war. When the Washington government was rendered ineffective by Black May, control of the nation fell to regional administrative centers. The Chicago Administration (along with similar centers in New York, Atlanta, Denver and Sacremento) was de facto independent until American reunification in time for the quadricentennial celebrations.

  
_Solar Organization (2186 - current)_

**Mankind United**  
Post-Emergency there was a serious discussion on whether or not the Sol system should be unified; that was the World State’s goal after all, and look what they got up to. Still, the idea of a properly-run, democratic goverment didn’t sound that bad so United Earth and the Planetary Commonwealth started talking. When the talking was done the two governments had merged into the SolOrg, now the ruling body of the Sol system.

  
_Council of Planet (2200 - current)_

**Breaking Bread**  
The Unity Project was the last great gasp of the old UN: a big project to found humanity’s first interstellar colony in the neighboring star system. Sadly, the initial Unity colony fell apart before it even got into orbit. Several decades later the surviving colonial factions created their own United Nations in order to keep from killing each other any more than they already had. The Council of Planet sponsored the first warp drive expedition back to Sol in 2210, finally recontacting the homeworld.

  
_Starfleet (2239 - current)_

**To Boldly Go**  
An outgrowh of formal and informal joint operating agreements between Sol, Centauri, Vulcan, Andor, Shiwonee and Xindus, Starfleet began as a non-governmental organization that promoted inter-sophont cooperation and scientific exploration. Starfleet’s integrated command structure was vital to the prosecution of the Rihannsu War, and the organization eventually became the main fleet arm of the Federal Worlds in 2257.

  
_Federal Worlds (2257 - current)_

**The Great Experiment**  
In the aftermath of the Rihannsu War the six allied nations discussed the possibility of a greater and more permanent union between each other. That so many different sophonts could work together suggested that continued unity was something worth pursuing. Initial talks ran aground on integrating preexisting governments into a single form, but by 2257 a new charter incorporating the best things from each nation was produced, debated and ratified, bringing the Federal Worlds into existence.

  
_Fourth Martian Republic (2281 - current)_

**Clear Blue Skies At Long Last**  
In 2280 the Martian terraforming office released their final atmospheric analysis: after two centuries of long and difficult work changing the surface of Mars, the air was now completely breathable by ordinary panhumans. To celebrate the Martians revived one of their classic pasttimes and overthrew the government. The Third Republic gracefully stepped aside and made way for the Fourth Republic, a government that would deal with the challenges of directing the newly class-M world and keeping it that way.

  
_United Colonies of Man (2297 - current)_

**So Say We All**  
“Life here began out there.” The children of Kobol know that they aren’t native to their home system; their books prove it. Refugees from a war they’ve largely forgotten, the Kobolians own a wide quaternary system filled with habitable worlds. In recent years the Colonies have had trouble with religious out-groups and the beginnings of artifical intelligence disrupting attempts at building an orderly nation. And unknown to them explorers from the Blorg and Federal space are starting to stray quite near their home systems...

  
_Vendikar Commonwealth (2311 - current)_

**Triumph Over Adversity**  
Vendikar was an average late-industrial world orbiting an unassuming star until 2277, when forces from the Tovarite Empire invaded. The Tovarites expected a high postclassical civilization and were surprised to find the natives toting guns and artillery. Neither of them had any idea the world was being monitored as part of the Federal Worlds Protectorate program. A very confused couple of months later Vendikar was liberated and beginning the slow process of qualifying for membership in the Federal Worlds, a process that completed in 2321.


	18. Alternate Take: The Witch of the Westemereland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an alternate take on _The Westerosi_ as a whole spurred on by a commenter on SpaceBattles who thought Jade's intervention to date might've been a bit much. So I mixed a few things up, rolled Jade's arrival in Westeros back a good twenty years and broke the ship a little harder so she was well and truly stuck. It just goes to show that even when Jade Hasegawa _tries_ to be as low-impact as she possibly can events have a way of making sure she breaks something important in the gears of Destiny...
> 
> Originally posted to SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity on December 9, 2018.

  **THE BOON COMPANION**

Arthur Dayne rode alongside his prince and wondered what the world was coming to. The king was going mad; none dared so much as breathe a word of it but there was no doubt that Aerys Targaryen’s wits were unraveling. All across the realm men looked to Prince Rhaegar to set things right, or at least take the realm in hand as his father failed. Lords worries and smallfolk whispered to each other. Signs and portents seemed to be everywhere.

Two years before on the day spring ended, a falling star was seen across the south of Westeros. Men from Dorne to the Reach saw the fiery star cross the sky just after dusk, leaving a trail of smoke that glowed like coals for an hour afterwards. Maesters thought deeply and septons preached about dire warnings from the Seven, but no great disaster followed in the star’s wake and so the matter was forgotten.

For a while, at any rate. Over the next year strange tales began to emerge from the southern Westerlands, in the forests near Silverhill. Travelers spoke of a woods-witch who had settled in a remote valley between the hills and the headwaters of the Lesser Mander, of grumkins lurking in the woods around the witch’s home, of gifts given to nearby farmers in exchange for knowledge.

Lord Serrett sent knights to discover the truth of this woods-witch. The knights stumbled back to Silverhill after a few days, battered and silent. This was enough to get the attention of Casterly Rock; Kevan Lannister led a company of men to the witch’s vale to put down any rebellion they found. What happened next, Arthur knew not. Ser Kevan refused to speak of it to any outside the family, but the witch was left alone.

The prince took this in stride, to an extent; the falling star intrigued him, and he often remarked to Arthur that the star and the witch were possibly connected. Yet aside from devoting more time to deciphering old Valyrian prophecies Rheagar let the matter lie. The vale was no more than an odd hole in the west producing strange tales, but so far as House Lannister cared no such thing even existed.

There the matter lay until, one and one-half year after the star fell, Elia of Dorne visited the witch’s vale and did not return.

It had been her brother’s idea, apparently. Oberyn Martell had contacts in the Citadel—who had apparently been treating in secret with the witch for some time—and, told of the witch’s prowess in medicine, convinced his frail sister to ride out in search of some lasting treatment for her woes. Brother and sister went with a small troupe of retainers; a moon’s turn later Oberyn and his men returned alone. Why Elia remained only she and her brothers knew, but they respect her decision. Arthur’s sister Ashara was one of the small number of Elia’s handmaidens who went with her and stayed in the valley. He had a letter from Ashara, sent along with the Red Viper, claiming all was well and she would return to Starfall when her lady allowed.

This was the thing that lit a fire beneath Rhaegar’s arse, for some reason. For as long as Arthur had known him the Targaryen prince had been never less than totally confident in his actions. The news that Elia was remaining in the witch’s care for her health sparked sudden uncertainty in Rhaegar’s actions. He took to his books and scrolls with deeper fervor, as if seeking some thing he had missed before.

“The world is changing,” he said to Arthur one night, half-buried in paper in the Red Keep’s library. “I can smell it in the air. Something has gone wrong, and I know not what it is.” Arthur had no idea what to say in reply, but kept vigil with his prince as best he may.

Eventually, the prince proposed to visit the woods-witch and her noble guest. “Some sorcery is brewing in the hidden parts of my father’s realm and I would know what that is,” he declared one day. Aerys, ever paranoid of all things and especially his son, agreed. The prince set out from King’s Landing with only two companions. Arthur would be his knight of the Kingsguard and Jon Connington would join them as the third of their party.

And so there they were, three lords in rough disguise entering a quiet mountain valley far from any of the main roads through the Westerlands.

Connington looked at the valley. Like most such vales in the Westerlands the walls were deceptively gentle in slope, rising to a much greater height than one might first think, and heavily forested. Down the center ran a river that would eventually join the Lesser Mander some leagues south. “Doesn’t seem like much to me,” he said.

Rhaegar tilted his head. “Perhaps,” he said. “But such appearances may be deceiving.” He spurred his horse onwards, finding a narrow track running along the stream’s edge.

Riding through the valley was like riding in a strange dream. The trees bent towards the water, creating a series of green tunnels broken here and there by shafts of light. The only sound was the croaking of frogs along the riverbank. The prince’s gaze wandered back and forth as they rode, inspecting every little detail of the path and the forest around it.

“Look there,” he said suddenly. “What do you see?”

Arthur looked out through the trees towards the river. “A pond?” he said.

Connington shook his head. “A strange pond,” he noted. “Looks like a giant’s bootheel caught the river. And look beyond, Ser Arthur! The trees all look broken!” Arthur looked away from the river and sure enough a long line of trees seemed to have been pruned with great force.

“By the gods,” he murmured. “What does it mean?”

Rhaegar’s face was grave. “It means we must press on,” he said. “Dark things are afoot here.”

The vale was longer than they’d first thought; by the time the sun began to sink beneath the western hills they were still deep inside the woods.  _No chance of finding the witch in this place in the dark,_  he thought.  _We’ll have to make camp soon._

Connington’s eyes turned off the path. “I see smoke,” he said, and rode off at a tear, Arthur and Rhaegar not far behind. In moments they came across a clearing between the trail and the river where a small fire was burning merrily. In front of the fire squatted a girl in rough clothing tending a pot of stew.

The girl looked up. “Why, hallo there!” she called. “Care to share a fire?”

“Who are you?” Connington demanded. The girl blinked at his tone.

“They call me Jay, good ser,” she said mildly. “Something wrong?”

“Jon, peace,” the prince said, dismounting with a cautious smile. “Forgive my friend, I beg you. We’ve been following the trail for some time and, well...”

“Ah,” the girl said knowingly. “Lookin’ for Green Hassey are ye? You’re on the right track if’n ye are, then; follow the track and ye’ll see her tower soon enough.”

“Green Hassey?” Arthur asked, dismounting.

“Oh aye, that’s what most folk call her round these parts.”

“Others live here?” Rhaegar asked, curiosity piqued. “I had thought none lived here but beasts.”

The girl laughed. “Oh, that’d be a thing,” she said. “No, milord, there’s a fair few farms and a village or two a little further in. Mostly keep to themselves, mind.”

“Who do they owe fealty to?” asked Connington. “These should be Serrett lands.”

“Fealty? Well now…” Jay cocked her head thoughtfully. “I s’pose most folk in the valley might as well be sworn to Green Hassey. She don’t really take to such things though. Prefers to let folks live as they will, only steps in if someone asks her to judge an’ the septon’s too busy, or if someone crosses her.”

“Crosses her,” Arthur echoed. “How would one cross her, mistress Jay?”

Jay gave the Kingsguard a measured look. “The witch only has a few rules. Nothin’ too terrible, don’t rob or rape or kill, that sort of thing. And whatever it is, she’ll know; they say that she knows everything that happens in Froggy Vale.” The three shifted uneasily. “And if you  _do_  do somethin’ stupid, then either her grumkins will take care of it, or if you make her mad enough  _she’ll_  handle it personally.” Jau shuddered. “Only seen that once, and that was more’n enough for me. If’n you’re  _smart_  sers, you’ll keep your swords sheathed while you’re here.”

“Something we shall keep in mind, dear lady,” Rhaegar said gravely. “Our thanks for the word of warning.”

Jay nodded, then brightened considerably. “Well, with that out o’ the way,” she said. “Anybody hungry? Ain’t much, but we can stretch it for four I think.” The pot of stew bubbling over the fire didn’t look much different from any bowl of brown served in King’s Landing, save for the color being a deep red.

Rhaegar and Arthur shared a look.  _Dare we trust it?_  The offer was well-meant, though eating smallfolk food could be a bit of a gamble, especially in the middle of the woods like this.

Connington dug a spoon out of his pack and gingerly scooped some of the red stew out of the pot. He took a bite and looked almost as red as his hair. “Gods be good, what  _is_  this?” he gasped.

“One o’ the witch’s concoctions,” Jay shrugged. “No magic, just dragon peppers an’ salt beef stewed together.” She took a mouthful of her own. “Takes a bit o’ gettin’ used to, I’ll admit, but it’s tasty enough,” she noted.

Arthur took a cautious taste. The sting of dragon pepper was almost overwhelming, even for a Dornishman used to such things. Beyond that there was little else to the stew, simply pepper and salted meat; a traveler’s meal. The prince followed suit, and if he thought it unpleasant he refused to say so.

That night they rested besides Jay’s fire. In the forest around them small blue lights danced through the trees. “Best to ignore the grumkins,” Jay cautioned them before they went to sleep, and so as he sat through the first watch Arthur carefully did not respond when the lights and sounds of little bells came close to the camp.

In the morning they awoke before the girl and, by some unspoken decree, decided to press on without delay. The prince placed a small pouch of silver next to the fire, they quietly packed up their bedrolls and rode away down the path, back into the dreamlike world of the trees and the frogs. They rode for hours beneath the canopy of green leaves, following the trail further into the valley, eventually coming to a wide flat space where the forest failed and grass ruled.

There, next to the winding water of the river, stood the witch’s abode. A stone wall encircled a square tower next to an enormous wooden barn, easily as large as Maegor’s throne room. Smoke curled gently from a chimney sticking out of the tower’s top. “Our quarry at last,” Rhaegar said. “Come!” With sudden motion he spurred his charger down the path towards the tower’s gate.

The gate was closed and barred when they got there, but opened silently as they approached. It looked much like any other knightly tower, but there were no servants bustling about tending to daily chores, nor guards to watch the gate. The courtyard was silent as the grave, even as the gate swung shut behind them.

“Careful, Your Grace, this may be a trap,” Arthur cautioned.

“Perhaps,” the prince mused. “Though why take us here and not on the road, if the girl wasn’t lying?”

Arthur looked around. There was no sign of any life in the courtyard, and the yard itself was strange. The inside of the perimiter wall had been smoothed and then carved and painted with remarkable images of red and black skies, trees like spears and strange creatures unlike anything from even the most outlandish tales. “Mayhaps the witch likes to play with her food,” he said. “We must be cautious.”

The tower door swung open and a woman Arthur knew on sight walked out. His sister Ashara crossed the courtyard swiftly with a small smile on her face and bowed deeply. “Your Grace, welcome,” she said. “The mistress of the tower is waiting for you inside.”

Arthur dismounted with lightning speed and embraced Ashara. “What have you been doing here?” he asked. “Where’s Princess Elia?”

“The princess is resting upstairs,” Ashara replied. “As for me, well, the mistress offered to make me her castellan. It’s… an interesting job,” she said wryly. “Now come on, brother. Let’s not keep a lady waiting.” She tried to pull him along, like they were children, and only his greater size kept her from succeeding. Connington chuckled at the display.

“Well, mayhaps not a trap after all, Ser Arthur,” he noted. “Shall we see what your sweet sister means?”

Rhaegar ignored his companions with dignity, heading for the open door with noble bearing. Arthur detached from his sister and followed close behind, Connington trailing just a little. They entered the door and Arthur had to stop hard to avoid crashing into his prince as he halted suddenly upon entering the chamber.

Before them, sitting in a tall chair of oak, was the girl who called herself Jay. The rough-spun clothing had been cast aside in favor of a gown of fine green fabric that drew attention to the woman’s slender figure. The only adornment she wore was a silver chain around her waist and a black badge with two golden crescents flanked by silver wings on her breast. Around her floated a host of small blue-eyed metal grumkins.

“Prince Rhaegar,” Jay said, all traces of rough speech gone and replaced with an accent that sounded half like the Free Cities and half utterly alien to Arthur’s ears. “Lord Connington, Ser Arthur. Welcome to Halley Tower. I am your host, Jade Hasegawa.” She cocked her head and smiled slightly. “You may have heard of me. I’m also called Green Hassey, or so I’m told.

“I’m sure you have questions. I may even have answers. Please, make yourselves comfortable.”

 

* * *

**THE CASTAWAY**

Jade Hasegawa watched from the top of Halley Tower as the prince and his guards rode back down the valley. “That boy is going to be trouble,” she pronounced gloomily to no one in particular.

Slim arms wrapped around her waist. “He is,” Elia agreed, pulling the other woman back into an embrace. Jade leaned back a little, never taking her eyes off the retreating Targaryen.

“Do you regret it?” she asked quietly.

“Perhaps a little, when I first came here and all I knew of Rhaegar was what others said of him. He was handsome and noble from afar, everything a maid could want in a prince. Now?” Her arms tightened around Jade. “The Targaryen madness does not burn in him like his father, it smolders. All he seems to care about are his precious prophecies. I pity whoever he weds; I wouldn’t wish the true Rhaegar on any woman in all of Westeros or Essos.”

“Mm,” Jade sighed. The prince was certainly an interesting piece of work. “Not to mention whatever happens when he inherits.”

“Oh aye,” said Elia. “It makes me glad to be here in the tower rather than out and about in Westeros.”

“Yeah… yeah.” Jade watched as the prince’s company vanished back into the forest. A little distance away a squadron of drones darted through the trees, keeping pace with them. The drones were under orders to make sure Rhaegar and friends left the valley without incident. “Hopefully it stays that way.”

All of a sudden Jade found herself whirling as Elia spun her around to face her. “You’re not thinking of getting involved, are you?” she demanded.

“Not really?” Jade not-quite-answered. “I swore an oath not to meddle in other people’s affairs, Elia. And I’m keeping that oath the best I can, which is why we’re  _here_  in the middle of nowhere instead of Oldtown or Braavos or Asshai or somewhere more civilized. But… now that he’s  _seen_  us I don’t know if Rhaegar or his daddy are going to leave us alone.”

“If it happens, then we will deal with it as it comes,” Elia said firmly. “For now, though, promise me you won’t go charging in unprepared. Not like your last adventure in Vaes Dothrak.”

“You punch out  _one_  khal,” Jade grumped, “and everybody thinks you’re a daredevil with a death wish.”

“No, only the ones who love you think that. Now,” Elia pulled away from Jade and fixed her with a blinding smile. “Tell me of your latest studies. You’ve been in the godswood all week, have you learned more about the heart tree.”

“Well!” Jade grinned. “I think I’ve got a better handle on the weirwood language now. It’s semi-telepathic, and at this point I’m pretty sure they’re coming out of a dormant phase, but that’s maybe a bit speculative...”


End file.
